Live News From Spain As It Happens

SPAIN'S minister of justice was asked in the middle of a parliament meeting if he had ever smoked hash, and categorically stated he had not. The subject of legalising marijuana as a way of clawing back more taxes was under discussion at the time, and minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón has always been dead against the idea. “Without wanting to go into personal details, I've had very painful and very close to home examples of drug-use and, as a consequence of trivialising a drug that does not kill, many young people start with it and end up somewhere along the line taking other drugs which do, in fact, kill – and some of those young people do not survive,” Ruiz-Gallardón stressed.

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THE judge in charge of the 'Nóos Case' involving the King and Queen's son-in-law Iñaki Urdangarín says he does not consider the Royal family were in any way implicated in the corruption and money-laundering scam. Despite emails presented to the court by Urdangarín's co-director Diego Torres, in which the latter tried to frame the Royal family, judge José Castro does not consider there is any evidence, after two years of investigations, that linked any of the Monarchy to the activities of the Nóos Institute. Neither does he consider Valencia's mayoress Rita Barberá or former president of the Comunidad Valenciana, Francisco Camps, were involved.

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POLAR winds mean snow could even reach the east coast of Spain by tomorrow (Thursday) and Friday, according to the State meteorological agency, AEMET. Already, several provinces in northern and central Spain are under weather warnings and drivers are being advised not to leave home unless they have snow chains. Emergency services have already had to rescue a husband and wife aged 57 after they became trapped in their car for 30 hours on the border of the provinces of Guadalajara and Segovia (central Spain).

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BUDGET airline passenger numbers fell by four per cent last month on the previous year's figures, although 'traditional' flight companies saw a 7.7 per cent drop in travellers to Spain. Low-cost airlines only just pip traditional ones at the post with an almost 50-50 split, and the UK continues to be the former's largest market, representing three in 10 passengers flying to Spain – slightly ahead of Germany, which accounts for just under a fifth. 

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A LEADING consumer group has set up an association for customers affected by tour giant Orizonia going into receivership, leaving thousands of tourists stranded abroad with their hotels demanding money before they let them go home. The troubled multi-national owns travel agency Vibo Viajes – formerly Viajes Iberia – which is set to close 950 offices, plus the tour operators Iberojet, Solplan, Viva Tours, Kirunna, Condor and Orizonia Life.

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ANOTHER five-day strike by Iberia pilots, cabin crew and ground staff will mean a further 1,300 flights grounded next week. Starting from Monday, March 4 and running until Friday, March 8 inclusive, workers will down tools in protest over the 3,807 redundancies planned by the airline as a consequence of restructure plans. Employees have already presented viable alternatives, including methods of increasing productivity and with pilots even proposing to take a 26-per-cent pay cut, but these have been rejected by the company's management and negotiations have reached stalemate.

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THREE federal regions in Spain have been fined multi-million sums by the European Union for misuse of grants. The Comunidad Valenciana has been hit by a 116-million-euro penalty and Andalucía for 219 million, whilst the Basque Country is set to lose 28 million euros. Although they will not have to find the money and hand it over, this will be deducted from future EU grants.

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FORMER treasurer and senator of the PP Luis Bárcenas has been forced to hand in his passport as the judge in charge of the slush fund case considers he may flee the country otherwise.

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FORMER treasurer and senator of the PP Luis Bárcenas was due to appear in court today at 13.00hrs to testify in respect of the multi-million accounts he held in Switzerland. Having already been in the dock on Wednesday, February 6 in connection with the alleged 'off the books' payments to members of his party over the course of 10 years, Bárcenas will now face questioning for his tax-haven bank accounts discovered after Swiss authorities found eight-figure funds in his name at Dresdner bank. Bárcenas has tried to explain away the 22 million euros stashed in two Swiss banks as being the proceeds of two estate agency businesses he was involved with and the sale of works of art – but neither the police nor the prosecution service believe this.

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PLUMMETING temperatures and cold winds have led to weather warnings being issued for 33 provinces in Spain, and all others on the mainland will suffer from freezing spells. Polar winds mean gales of at least 80 kilometres per hour are expected in the region of Aragón, particularly in Huesca and Teruel, and in the province of Castellón, tomorrow. 

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NEW measures to encourage self-employed people and small businesses could be brought into force as a debate is due to take place in the Council of Ministers next week. Self-employed persons aged 30 and under, or those newly self-employed, will only have to pay 50 euros a month in Social Security for the first six months instead of the usual 270 euros, and will get a 50 per cent discount for the next six months dropping to 30 per cent for the third period of six months. 

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FORMER treasurer and senator Luis Bárcenas signed a statement in front of a notary giving names of those who had donated funds to the PP and those who had received them during the 15 years he managed the party's cashflow, according to a report received by the judge handling the slush-fund case. The document, handed to the court by the Financial Crimes Unit (UDEF), and dated December 14, 2012, confirms Bárcenas (pictured) was responsible for monitoring income and expenses under the heading 'PP Donations', jointly with Álvaro de Lapuerta, between 1994 and 2009

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FILM stars have hit back at Spain's finance minister for accusing them of crippling the economy by not paying their taxes in their home country on their multi-million earnings. Cristóbal Montoro's controversial comments in Parliament - “We don't have our own Gérard Dépardieu, because we don't need to; if Spanish film stars paid their taxes in Spain, we wouldn't have to increase these for the ordinary citizen” - have incensed the country's Actors' Guild. Its spokesman, Iñaki Guevara responded: “This seems rich coming from a political party with tax-evasion issues.”

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SPANISH firm Ferrovial has just bought the British company Enterprise for 443 million euros (385 million pounds).  Ferrovial Servicios already has a presence in the UK via its affiliate Amey, but in addition to its main activities of road and rail maintenance and services, will now enter the utility and power sector. Enterprise is one of the UK's largest energy and water companies, but demand for these services in the country is rapidly increasing and the 100-per-cent takeover by Ferrovial will allow it to increase its offer, says Mel Elwell, managing director of Amey in Britain, who will be chief executive officer of the new company once the purchase has gone through.

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PARENTS of a 17-year-old football referee who had to have his spleen removed after being beaten up by a police officer have confirmed their son's version of events.  Héctor G.T. (pictured) was refereeing at the second-division regional match between Los Silos and Mislata B-teams on Sunday in Burjassot (Valencia), when a player of the away team, Alberto M. M., 27, called him 'subnormal' and began to kick him brutally.  The accused was an off-duty National Police officer, who has been suspended from his duties pending the outcome of the case. 

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EARTHQUAKES in the province of Valencia on Tuesday brought forth a flood of panicked calls to emergency services as residents feared a repeat of the devastation in Lorca (Murcia) in May 2011. The highest, at 2.7 on the Richter scale, had its epicentre in Sollana (Valencia) late on Monday night, and another four were felt in nearby Silla between 05.51hrs and around 16.00hrs on Tuesday, ranging from 1.5 to 2.6 on the Richter scale. 

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AT least 8,000 Iberia staff members filled Barajas T4 to capacity yesterday during the second of their five days of strikes and protests over the company’s plans to make nearly 4,000 employees redundant.  Riot police had to intervene and the crowds of wall-to-wall demonstrators blocked off entrances, forcing their way in. Reports of confrontations between airport workers and passengers were even recorded.

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IF more famous Spanish film stars paid their taxes in their country of origin, the ordinary citizen would shell out a lot less, claims minister Cristóbal Montoro (pictured). When asked about what was being done to clamp down on fraud, drug-dealing and money laundering during a meeting in the Senate, Spain's head of tax affairs said efforts should be channelled towards the rich and famous. “We haven't had our own Gérard Dépardieu here – we haven't needed to, because some of our famous actors and actresses don't pay their taxes in Spain,” Montoro stated, in clear reference to the veteran French movie star who pointedly acquired Russian citizenship in protest over his native country's 'super-taxes' applied to the very rich.

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A WOMAN set herself on fire in front of a branch of the CaixaAlmassora bank at noon yesterday after dousing herself with flammable liquid.

It is thought she may have fallen behind with her mortgage and been unable to negotiate with the lender, leading her to desperate measures. 

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A STUD farm in Palencia has had twin filly foals born to one of its mares – a one-in-a-million occurrence and the first time the owner has seen this in 40 years. The Palomar Redondo Stud, which breeds Pura Raza Españolas – Spanish thoroughbreds – has been in the hands of Jesús Pizarro since the early 1970s and this is a first for the yard, says the surprised owner. Mares only ever conceive and give birth to one foal at a time after a gestation period of 11 months, which will feed off her until it is weaned at around four months old, or up to six if the baby is very frail.

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IBERIA airline staff will commence a five-day strike today (Monday) morning, the longest in the history of the company, after negotiation efforts between workers and bosses failed. Both ground staff and cabin crew will join the strike, which will continue until and including Friday, February 22 and which is the first of a series of five-day pickets announced by employees.

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SPAIN'S Rafa Nadal has won the Brazilian Open in São Paulo against Argentina's David Nalbandian – his first victory since Roland Garros and only his second tournament since suffering a knee injury at Wimbledon which forced him to pull out of the Olympics. The Mallorca-born world number five said his knee was still painful at times during the tournament, and the slippery conditions on the court due to wet weather did not help.

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TWO men have lost their lives in the latest 'kamikaze driver' incident involving a motorist travelling down a main road in the wrong direction.  Guardia Civil officers received numerous calls at around midnight on Friday when a man was seen driving down the A-49 near Bollullos Par del Condado (Huelva province), but by the time they got there, he had already caused a head-on collision. 

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OVER 30 Spanish students are stranded in the Riviera Maya area of México due to their tour operator, Orizonia, going into receivership. The company, which is the majority shareholder of Solplan, the firm which manages the package holiday, called in the creditors on Friday. But the tourists, who are all physiotherapy students at the Rey Juan Carlos I University in Alcorcón (Madrid), have been ordered by the hotel to pay 1,000 US dollars to be allowed to leave the premises. 

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A BRITISH woman's funeral in Cómpeta (Málaga) on the day of her 80^th birthday had a bizarre twist – the 'deceased' was not dead.

“I am very happy – thank you for coming to my funeral, but I am sorry to tell you that I am still alive, and that it was all a joke,” said Eileen Bush. She said she had deliberately organised her 80^th birthday party as though it were her funeral, because she wanted to be there to hear the 'lovely things' people would say about her if it really had been her last rites. 

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LEADER of Spain's opposition, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba has announced his party is going to 'do a financial striptease', starting with himself.  Information published by the socialist head yesterday (Thursday) showed that in 2012, as number one in opposition, he earned a net figure of 67,229 euros, reducing to 55,849 euros after discounting expenses for travel, transport, food and similar. 

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PENSIONERS are more likely to get fined for speeding than younger drivers, says a surprise report by the Royal Automobile Club of Spain (RACE) and Liberty Insurance. More drivers aged 65 and over get killed on the roads because of driving too fast, and people of this age-group much prefer their cars to public transport. But they tend to leave their vehicles at home when the weather is bad or when they know there will be a lot of traffic on the roads, and avoid driving at night. 

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SPAIN is set to launch a new 'anti-corruption' law in an attempt to prevent scandals such as the Gürtel case or the Bárcenas slush-fund allegations. According to the Global Right to Information Rating, 93 countries in the world have transparency laws in place, but Spain is not one of these. A draft text for a new transparency law was approved in Parliament in March last year, but has undergone numerous amendments after being consulted by experts and members of the public. The part of the law which comes under the heading of the Good Governing Code will become effective as soon as it is approved, but the section on transparency has a deadline of a year. 

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A SPANISH woman has been arrested in the USA for reportedly stabbing her American husband to death 'because she saw him looking at child porn'. María Reyes García-Pellón (pictured), originally from Valladolid just north of Madrid, confessed to the crime and is being held in custody in Delaware County.

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A KITCHEN assistant and waiter has been arrested on suspicion of trying to poison his 14 work colleagues and possibly his late boss. The 55-year-old has worked at the pictured restaurant in Gijón (Asturias) since early 2005, and came under suspicion when fellow employees noticed he and his partner were the only ones who were not suffering unpleasant symptoms that included fever, sweating, splitting headaches and a very fast heartbeat.

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A LANDMARK ruling in Parliament has seen mortgage and repossession legislation changed thanks to a widespread society campaign. This People's Legislative Initiative (PLI) was due to be rejected by the PP government despite having been signed by over 1.4 million members of the public – more than three times what is needed to enforce a change in the law.

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JUST hours after news broke about the suicide of a Basque man as his home was about to be repossessed, a retired couple has been found dead in their apartment in Mallorca after taking massive overdoses after their bank foreclosed on their mortgage.  A post-mortem is due to be carried out to confirm the cause of death, but police are treating it as a suicide pact between a man aged 68 and his wife, 67.

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UP to 10 Spanish Cardinals could be elected as Pope when Benedict XVI leaves his post on Thursday, February 28 after resigning due to 'old age and health problems'. Following the Pontiff's startling announcement yesterday, speculation has been rife as to who his successor will be. In theory, any man who is celibate and has been christened can become Pope, but the leader of the world Catholic Church is normally one of 120 Cardinals elected. Among the 62 European members of the electing board are five Spaniards who could also become Pope – Carlos Amigo Vallejo, aged 79; Santos Abril Castelló, aged 78; Antonio María Rouco Varela, 77, who is the Archbishop of Madrid; Lluís Martínez Sistach, 77, and Antonio Cañizares Llovera, 67. 

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MOST of the north of Spain is knee-deep in snow and over 1,500 kilometres' worth of roads have been closed. Madrid, the Basque Country, Castilla-La Mancha, Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, La Rioja and Navarra are the worst-hit regions, as are parts of Castilla y León – including Palencia, Ávila, Burgos, León and Segovia; and the provinces of Cáceres in Extremadura; Lleida in Catalunya, and Zaragoza and Huesca in Aragón.

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TOP-LEVEL members of the PP government have pledged to publish their tax returns in the next few days to wipe out suspicions that they received backhanders in cash. All those reportedly involved in the Bárcenas slush fund case have agreed to do so in a bid to show their innocence. Regional president of Castilla-La Mancha and number two in the central government, María Dolores de Cospedal, says today will be 'transparent Monday' as she and other party members gradually add their financial information over the last decade or so to the Moncloa website. 

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A 12-YEAR-OLD boy managed to jump airport security and fly from Brussels to Málaga without a ticket or passport. Border police took the Belgian boy in when they became suspicious after seeing him wandering 'erratically' around Málaga airport, and found that he had managed to get past security in the capital of his own country and board the plane unnoticed.

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SPAIN'S president Mariano Rajoy has published his tax declarations and breakdowns of his assets for every year since 2003 in a bid to show his innocence amid the Bárcenas slush-fund scandal. It shows that in eight years, he has paid over 840,000 euros in income tax and more than 30,000 euros in tax on his assets.

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A SPANISH tourist has been arrested on a train between France and Switzerland with 1.8 million euros in cash in his suitcase. 

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EUROVEGAS will be built in Alcorcón (Madrid) – it's official, says the regional government. The first brick will be laid this year, the first phase of the building works will be completed in 2017 and the massive Las Vegas-style casino will be open to the public in 2022. Las Vegas Sands, the US-based company behind the huge complex, will put up 35 per cent of the 17-billion-euro bill and 3.6 billion for the first phase, which will cost a total of six billion. The rest, says Las Vegas Sands, 'will pay for itself'. Madrid's regional president Ignacio González says the casino will be 'an excellent opportunity for creating jobs'.

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MADRID will create a 'legal island' for Eurovegas which gives the complex special treatment and exemptions, reveals the regional government. The huge Vegas-style casino resort will create at least 120,000 jobs and provide a massive boost to the regional economy and that of the town of Alcorcón, where it will be based – but US tycoon Sheldon Adelson has demanded a series of privileges in exchange. These include exemption from taxes such as IBI (property tax), income tax and gambling tax; changes in the Workers' Statute to make it cheaper to employ people; changes to foreign affairs legislation so that they can take on employees from other countries; complete freedom of opening hours; relaxing of smoking laws to allow lighting-up in the casinos; allowing under-18s to enter the gambling areas - since they may have to cross through them to get to their hotels or other leisure facilities, and parents may need to take their children with them if they go into the casino areas; and the law preventing gambling addicts from playing to be eliminated. 

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A CANDIDATE for Carnival Queen in Tenerife suffered 40 per cent burns when her costume caught fire, causing flames of up to 10 metres in height, say witnesses. Saida María Prieto, 25 (pictured), was backstage at the time and was seen frantically trying to strip off her costume, which carried a huge pair of 'wings' like a peacock's feathers and was strapped to her.

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THE second 'kamikaze' driver in the space of a week has been arrested in the Comunidad Valenciana after travelling for 23 kilometres in the wrong direction down the A-7. Police received around 15 calls in as many minutes from panicked motorists, and ended up having to pursue the driver at high speed for nearly 20 minutes. He was finally caught at the exit for Alquerías del Niño Perdido (Castellón), although he had driven past several sliproads he could have taken to get off the motorway in the meantime. 

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THE King and Queen's son-in-law Iñaki Urdangarín and his business partner Diego Torres have failed to come up with the 8.2-million-euro bail-bond imposed on them in the Nóos Institute case. This means the court will proceed to embargo their assets up to this amount to cover possible liabilities if they transpire to be guilty of the corruption and money-laundering charges they face. Both could face up to 20 years in jail if this is the case. Although they are not the only parties involved, both men have a joint obligation to deposit 8,189,400 euros with the courts for allegedly receiving regional government funds fraudulently from Valencia and the Balearic Islands, by setting up the Nóos Institute as a non-profit-making entity when it was in fact anything but

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SPAIN'S Royal household has denied that they or King Juan Carlos have tried to convince the Infanta Cristina (pictured) to divorce her husband or give up her title. The Duchess of Palma – who is an 'Infanta' rather than a 'Princess' since, although she is the King's daughter, she is not an heir to the throne – is married to Iñaki Urdangarín, one of the two main suspects in the Nóos Institute corruption and money-laundering scandal. Urdangarín is no longer publicly associated with the Royals, having been wiped from their website and banned from representing them in public duties.

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KING Juan Carlos' son-in-law has until midnight tonight to find nearly 8.2 million euros to pay his bail and avoid ending up behind bars. Iñaki Urdangarín, husband of the King and Queen's daughter the Infanta Cristina, has to come up with the money as a guarantee against possible liabilities if he is found guilty once the Nóos Institute corruption trial is complete. 

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FORMER treasurer and senator Luis Bárcenas insists he never wrote the ledgers found by Spanish national newspaper El País which claimed president Mariano Rajoy received 25,200 euros a year in cash for a decade and other party members also got regular backhanders. Bárcenas says he is willing to undergo 'any writing test' imposed on him to prove that the ledgers were not written by his hand. 

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OVER 30 protests in cities across Spain are due to take place on Wednesday with pupils from primary, secondary, sixth form and university taking to the streets – and a further demonstration on Thursday led by teachers, parents and other education workers. In several major cities, gatherings are already taking place with pickets set up and information stands explaining about the funding cuts in education and healthcare.

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A SPANISH priest is among a list of 122 members of the clergy in the USA accused of abusing children in the 1980s, according to documents held by the archdiocese of Los Ángeles. A letter dated 1993 written to the Archbishop from a man who wishes to remain anonymous claims José I. Ugarte sexually abused him 10 years previously, when he was aged 17. According to the documents, the Archbishop back in 1983, Roger Mahony, and Ugarte came to an agreement that the latter would go back to his own country, Spain, to live.

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IBERIA employees have announced their planned strikes will commence on Friday, February 15 and at least five will take place before the end of the month. Pilots, cabin crew and ground staff intend to down tools for 24 hours at a time after negotiations between unions and airline bosses failed. They will consult firstly with the inter-confederal mediation and arbitration service (SIMA) which is heading up talks between the company and its workers, to tell them of their 'last resort – conflict'.

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EMERGENCY measures are to be approved by Spain's government to prevent yet another increase in electricity bills, according to minister for industry, energy and tourism, José Manuel Soria. An application for credit to the tune of 2.2 billion euros and a new draft law, or Royal Decree to change the way cost of regulated electricity-based activities are reviewed – such as transport, distribution, energy supplies off the mainland, and special premium rates – are expected to save between 330 and 340 million euros and avoid yet another in the series of electricity bill hikes that households and businesses have seen in the last four or five years. 

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A YOUNG  mum facing jail six years after using a credit card she found in the street to buy food and nappies has been pardoned by the government.  Emilia Soria, 28 – who was 22 at the time of the incident – was initially sentenced to community service and a 900-euro fine for having spent 193 euros on essentials for her daughters, then aged one and three.

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OVER 500 people protested in front of the PP headquarters in Madrid yesterday, and at least 200,000 people have signed a petition on www.change.org calling for president Mariano Rajoy and his cabinet to resign over claims that he and other party members received wage top-ups 'off the books' for 11 years.  Police had to cordon off the C/ Génova in the capital and remove 150 people from the entrance to the PP's offices during the massive demonstration which started at 20.00hrs last night. 

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